A Friend Till the End
by pantedgieQueen13
Summary: They say friendship lasts a lifetime. But, the stories of where you got those friends last even longer. Origin oneshot requested by Skyelara. Enjoy!


A Friend Till the End

"Poor Cream."

"What do you mean, Amy?"

The pink hedgehog smoothed a crease on the picnic blanket and brushed away a stray quill as she looked at her young friend playing just over the hill nearby. The twin-tailed fox across from her, for the first time in his life, seemed confused. She sighed. "I mean that she doesn't have any special powers, and she always has to get left behind because she's too young."

"Well, would you rather have her in the face of danger?" Tails swished his twin appendages absently. "You can't expect too much."

"But, she's growing older so fast, Tails!" Amy argued. "She'll soon be seven, you know. And," her hand dug into the picnic basket, feeling for a soda. "I feel bad, leaving her all alone all the time. Being alone isn't good for children her age."

"But, she isn't alone," argued a calm voice from the treetops.

"Sonic!" Tails and Amy exclaimed at the same time in surprise.

"Thought you were asleep," Amy muttered coldly. "We were trying to have an adult conversation."

"I thought you said you were too worn out to spend time with us?" Tails wondered, a little cooler about Sonic's sudden interruption than Amy was. He was more used to it, anyway.

Sonic ignored both his friends' comments, sitting up on the branch. "She's not alone, guys. Look at her." He gestured with his hand. "She's got Cheese."

"You can't say you don't feel guilty about leaving her all the time, Sonic." Tails mused.

"Yeah, Sonic! I thought you had more heart than that!" Amy accused as Sonic yawned hugely.

"Oh, I feel guilty all right. Vanilla trusts me like heck to keep her safe, and I'd feel bad if anything happened while I wasn't around, but…" The blue male stretched, grunting as he closed his eyes. "Like I said, she's got Cheese. I don't know how or why, but that little blue thing keeps her pretty safe. And, listen to her laugh!" He added, a satisfied smile crossing his face. "Cheese keeps her company."

"Why?" Amy wondered.

Sonic slipped out of the tree. After a moment of silence, staring at Cream and Cheese down in the valley, he spoke again. "Dig out those sandwiches, Amy. I'm starved." He sat beside his two-tailed friend and rubbed his eyes.

"Not until you spill." Amy answered, flopping onto her stomach and settling in for a good long story. Sonic was very good at spinning a story yarn although he wasn't good at paying attention.

"How the heck should I know?" Sonic shrugged. "Chaos like Cheese are magical."

"Where'd she get it from, anyway?" Tails quizzed eagerly, also settling in to hear the story.

Sonic laughed. "Okay, I'll tell you. Vanilla's told me a thousand times. Let's see, the story begins…"

*******************************

_Vanilla's house, Two Years Previous_

"Do be careful, Cream!" The older rabbit cautioned from outside her window. "Go and find Sonic and bring him back here at once! And, please take care of yourself!"

"I will, mother!" The young rabbit took flight, flapping her incredibly huge ears like twin wings. Why her mother had need of the superfast blue hedgehog was a mystery to her, but running errands alone had never been something she'd been aloud to do before and she relished the new freedom. Perhaps this would lead to even _more _freedom!

Cream squealed in delight, thinking about the possibilities. As she was flying towards the area of the world Sonic could usually be found on, she began to feel tired. After all, she'd never flown this long before, and her poor ears ached with the effort it took to fly. So, she alighted on the ground near a forest to catch her breath. Curious, she decided to investigate, already disobeying her mother's number one rule: No wandering off.

Quite soon, she came upon a rather large, shining rock. It was pale blue in color with white splotches everywhere and some pink and yellow mixed in. It was oval-shaped, and nestled neatly amongst a bed of pretty pink flowers. Intrigued, Cream ventured to touch it, disobeying another one of her mother's rules: Don't touch things that don't belong to you.

As her hand rested against the cool surface, a blinding light burst forth. Cream shielded her eyes from the light because of its brightness. After it had subsided, she found herself looking at a small, teardrop-shaped light blue creature with a yellow question mark above its head. Cream reached out a tentative hand to touch it, but the little creature's hand was already within her own.

"Hi there," the little rabbit whispered softly.

"Chao!" The creature exclaimed happily, taking flight and alighting on her shoulder.

"You know, your egg was really yellow, just like cheese." Cream mused. At the word "cheese", the chao took flight again, clapping its hands together. "Oh? You like that name?" Cream asked, giggling.

"Chao, chao!" The small creature nodded.

"Then, Cheese you'll be." Cream flapped her ears and took flight. "C'mon, Cheese! We've got to finish mother's errand!"

*******************************

_A small valley, present day_

"Wow…" Tails was practically speechless in amazement.

Sonic, who had given up on getting Amy to get his food for him, was now digging through the picnic basket absently, frowning.

"Here are the sandwiches," Amy handed them to him slyly and turned her attention back to Cream, who was now tumbling about with Cheese by her side. "So that's how she got Cheese, huh?"

Sonic nodded, swallowing what was in his mouth. "Yep."

Presently, Cream came up the hill, Cheese two steps behind her. "Hey, everyone." She smiled sweetly. "What are you talking about?"

The three older ones shared glances as Cream sat beside Amy on the blanket.

"Oh, nothing." Sonic answered.


End file.
